Mr. Hrymak’s Weekly Newsletter
Week of August 25, 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Happy Monday parents and students! As mentioned in my looooooong classroom
letter that you may have already perused over the weekend, this is my weekly parent
and student newsletter. This communication will be sent home every Monday, or on
the first day of the school week. It will also be posted on my Web page. This will be
my way to keep you informed about pertinent classroom, school and district
information.
Since reading at home every day is very important, students will be
required to read and log a minimum of 100 minutes of at-home reading
each week. It will be counted as part of their quarterly reading grade. A
Weekly Reading Log will be sent home every Friday, and will be due the
following Friday. Please spend some time reviewing the reading log and requirements
with your child, as well as monitoring his/her reading this week. Detailed information
about the reading log will be sent home in this week’s Friday Folder. The first reading
log will be due next Friday, September 5. Enjoy the week!
Language Arts
Our daily language arts time will include reading, vocabulary, comprehension,
fluency, spelling, grammar and writing skills. Please refer to my long letter
sent home last Friday for more details, or check it out on my Web page. Over
the next two weeks, we will begin the McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders core
curricular series by working on a set of lessons called the Smart Start, as well
as beginning Unit 1, Week1. We will be utilizing the Smart Board in our
classroom for much of the language arts instruction.
During Unit 1, Lesson 1, our class will be focusing on the different ways people
attempt to get the things they need. We will discuss the businesses in a
community, such as banks, and how they may serve the needs of people.
Some of the skills we will work on include reading realistic fiction, rereading for
comprehension, using context clues to decode words, writing correct sentences,
as well as the “Ideas” 6-Traits of Writing skill.
This Unit Lesson’s Vocabulary Words:
afford, loan, profit, prosper, risk, savings, scarce, wages
This Week’s Vocabulary Strategy:
Context Clues
Below (and attached) are some activities you can do at home with your child to
help reinforce the skills we’ll be practicing:
Word Workout (See the Attached Page)

Words to Know: sentence clues
Say a sentence and have your child complete it with the correct
vocabulary word.

Spelling/Phonics: short vowels
Show the word list to your child. Give him or her one minute to spell as
many words as he or she can. Then do it again!
Comprehension: Sequence (See the Attached Page)
Your child will read a story about a girl’s special birthday celebration. Then he
or she will order sentences to show the sequence of events in the story.
These activity pages are not to be brought back to school. They are intended for
extra practice at home.
Reading Assessment:
At the end of each unit lesson, students will take a reading assessment. Each
lesson assessment is comprised of the following:

2 “Cold Read” selections

10 multiple –choice items assessing Comprehension Skills

10 multiple-choice items assessing Vocabulary Strategies

1 constructed response item assessing Comprehension
Each weekly assessment features two selections on which the assessment
items are based. The selections reflect the unit theme and/or weekly Essential
Question to support the focus of the classroom instruction.
The first assessment will be completed in a whole group setting to support the
students in reviewing the assessment format. The first assessment will be at
the end of next week.
Spelling
Every Monday, including today, we will begin with a spelling preview test. After
the preview test, your child will bring home his/her differentiated spelling list,
based on their performance on the preview test. Some of the students might
need to correct their errors on the preview by writing the misspelled words ten
(10) times each and using the word in 1 sentence using correct context clues in
the sentence. Corrections, if necessary, will be due on Wednesday.
The
weekly spelling test will be on Fridays, unless otherwise indicated on the
assignment notebook board.
Social Studies and Science
Later this week, we will begin a unit in social studies called Geography of the
United States. Students will be learning mapping skills such as how to read
longitude and latitude on a globe. Soon, students will reveive a password so
that they may use the teachtci.com web site to acess their book online.
We will be working on science and social studies in quarters this year. During
the second grading period, we will work on the science curriculum.
Other Important Upcoming Stuff:

THE M.A.P. assessments, as well as other school-wide assessments, begin this
week. Our class will take the M.A.P. reading assessment this Thursday
morning. The math assessment will be next week.

The reading fluency benchmark assessment is later this afternoon.

There will be no school on Monday, September 1, due to the Labor Day holiday.

Palos West’s Curriculum Night is Thursday, September 4 from 6:30 – 8:00 PM.
There will be a 2:00 dismissal that day.

Thursday, September 11, is Patriot Day.
patriotic colors.

There will be a noon dismissal for students on Friday, September 12 due to
teacher meetings.

Our annual Laps for Literature event is also on Friday, September 12.

Monday, September 15, is Palos West Picture Day.
Students are encouraged to wear
Enjoy a Great Week!